I'm not a professional chef....I just like to play one in the kitchen

When you are Gluten Free you don’t get to enjoy very many fried or “crispy” foods you once did. Which is probably a good thing. However for those times you want to make things like breaded eggplant, chicken fingers, zucchini fries or more, most gluten free breadcrumbs just don’t cut it. Panko is out of course. So what do you do? I recently found the answer in Publix completely by accident. While searching to see if they had any new gluten free breadcrumb options I found it.

True words Mrs. Child. Wether you have been educated in the finest culinary schools in the world, or just cook daily at home, you must practice in order to be good, and that means you must COOK. Some people say they “can’t cook” and you may be thinking “that’s me” or “yeah Aunt Mary can’t boil water…”. This could be true. I could cook everyday and go to culinary school and never be an incredible chef like some I know. I do believe that people are born with a predisposition towards culinary greatness. It’s the same for anything. A famous athlete. A rocket scientist. A surgeon. Most people who are truly great at what they do, were blessed with a talent for it….

I don’t know about you, but I LOVE breakfast. I mean I love food in general…obviously, but breakfast is my favorite meal. Strangely enough breakfast holds many many memories for me, more so then any other meal…particularly “downthashore”. That’s how you say “Going to the beach” if you are from Philadelphia or New Jersey.

Growing up, we had a beach house in Ocean City and most mornings Dad was in charge of breakfast. This was decades before I realized I should be eating Gluten Free so we had pancakes, pork roll sandwiches (another Jersey/Philly thing), sticky buns from Mallon’s…you name it. I even have distinct memories of being at my Dad’s parents beach house – Mommom and JJ and watching my grandmother make cream chipped beef. That was my Irish side of the family….

“Always start out with a larger pot than what you think you need.”
― Julia Child

Or pan. Or baking dish. Or mixing bowl…..

Sage advice from Mrs. Child, and something I occasionally forget to do. Now, due to Littledude’s vehement refusal of greens I have resorted to trickery and deceit these days. Although a lot of dairy is not good for anyone, cheese is the proverbial “Golden Ticket” of ingredients to get him to eat anything green these days so cheesey goodness hiding the veggies is the way I have been going….

In this house most Friday nights are “pizza night”, a night where I make another go at making gluten free pizza from scratch. Yeah I live a wild and crazy life…. I know….. I know

So here we are again on my quest for pizza that doesn’t taste so….gluten free. There are a fair amount of pizza dough mixes on the market it appears <I just did a quick Google search> most of them pricey. Soon however, I am going to have to resort to ordering a new brand off the internet as I think I have tried Bob’s Red Pizza Crust Mixevery which way you can. Many different types of pizzas and calzones have been attempted with varying degrees of …well success is not the correct word here, let’s go with results.…

First admission. I didn’t make the fish. I COOKED the fish, and perfectly well I might add <pat self on back> but the fish was pre-crusted and NOT Gluten Free. I got it from The Fresh Marketwhen I did a huge “protein shop” at the butcher last week. I pick a bunch of things, order 4 of each as it’s normally Nonna, Mama Sis, myself then the munchkins split one, and have the butcher wrap it all to freeze. Wrapped, labeled and perfectly portioned – it SO speaks to the inner OCD freak in me. I’m a 20 plus minute customer but my butcher John is the BOMB and I walk out so happy. Completely broke but happy and with enough quality meat and fish for a few weeks….

Tuesday’s Tips is about…..I bet you figured this out already. Yes I will be giving tips about cooking, food preparation, and more…. things I have learned over the years from experience, chefs and of course my late Gram who was THEcook in the family….